


Shane

by sudapigrafool



Category: 30 Seconds to Mars
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-14 00:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1246459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sudapigrafool/pseuds/sudapigrafool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This Is War-era; Jared and Tomo in the Lab; Shomo implied<br/>Tomo asks Jared about "My So-Called Life"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shane

He's talking to Jared's back when he says it.  
  
"Do you remember when you did that show 'My So-Called Life'? Do you remember playing Jordan Catalano?"  
  
Maybe he sees the muscles across Jared's shoulders tighten, but then again, maybe it's just his imagination. He'd been waiting for the flinch. Or, the slow turn and the burning stare. He'd been waiting for _something_ , so when there's practically nothing, Tomo thinks maybe he just imagined it.

They're alone in the studio. It's sometime after midnight. Jared likes to keep the lights low when he's working, even during the day. Now, it's black as a cave in there, with a sole island of brightness surrounding the console where light streams down from Jared's monitors above the board.  
  
Finally, he leans back in his chair and swivels around to face Tomo. Looks right at him, Tomo notes, but the expression in his eyes is a little distant.  
  
"Yeah," he replies carefully. "Some of it."

The darkness makes it seem like they're closer than they really are.  
  
This lawsuit with the record label, Tomo's thinking, as much as they don't want to dwell on it, he knows it's almost impossible for Jared to separate from it all sometimes. That it just consumes him.  
  
"I didn't watch much myself," Tomo presses cautiously, "But I remember 'cause I was in high school back then."  
  
"Well, yeah, that figures."  
  
"And there was this girl I knew who watched all the time. I mean, a lot of girls at my school did, actually." Because, as Tomo recalls, your teen years were the ones where who you were was defined as much by what you _did_ as what you _didn't_.  
  
"Uh-huh. Was she your, um, girlfriend?" Jared ventures. "Because if she was, just let me apologize right now..."  
  
"No." Tomo interrupts, and he can't quite stop his mouth from wanting to curl up in a smile. "She was just a friend."  
  
"I see." Somehow, Jared's effect is managing to be both intense and flat.

And sometimes, even after all the years together, Tomo still wonders what it is Jared thinks he "sees." In him. It's a little unnerving.  
  
"It wasn't the 'Jordan Catalano, major heart-throb' thing, exactly," Tomo tries to explain. "Well, sort of," he adds, backtracking for a moment. "More like, suddenly she started calling all her friends by the names of characters on the show. Like, manic obsessive stuff. I mean, she wanted to pattern her whole freaking life after that show." And that's another thing Tomo remembers about high school; that 'reality' was largely something one constructed for the effect.  
  
Jared's stare slides away and he blinks into the dimness, his blue eyes shadowed and dusky gray in the dark.  
  
"Yeah," he sighs, and his face is still an unreadable mask.  
  
Maybe, Tomo considers, when Jared says "I see" it really is just an expression.

"Did she make you all call her ‘Angela’?" Jared asks.

"No. Some other name," Tomo answers. "I don’t remember the names."

"Rayanne?"

"Yeah, that was it." Tomo’s surprised that it comes back to him. He’s even more surprised Jared bothered to try and guess.

"Rayanne," Jared repeats with finality. He nods his head slowly and presses his lips together in a firm line. "Good choice." A tiny frown pleats the skin between his brows.

"So then, how did Shannon handle it when the teen icon thing started happening?" Tomo hears himself wondering aloud. Intemperate or not, that does seem to be his own voice prodding at Jared with this peculiar, ruminating line of inquiry. "I mean, the magazine covers and all that shit."

"You mean when he wasn’t mocking me?" Jared’s face relaxes into a half smile.

" _Haha_ \-- okay, yeah, I can see him doing that," Tomo laughs.

"Actually, he was very encouraging," Jared offers. "He’d say stuff like, sure, for an actor being a teen idol was a lot like having career rabies, but just like rabies, every now and then there’d be a miraculous case where somebody recovered, so. Hey, it could happen! Then later, after offering me all this bullshit wisdom, he realized anytime he introduced himself to someone with, ‘yeah, I’m Jordan’s brother,’ he was sure to get laid. So there was an up side."

"Was that boys, or girls?" Tomo grins. There’s plenty of history he hasn’t heard about yet, and he figures as long as Jared’s in the mood to answer questions…

"A little of both, I think."

Tomo smirks. "You know he still does that, but he doesn’t use the name Jordan anymore."

"Mm," Jared hums. "Did he try it on you?"

"Well…" uh...

"Did it work?"

Tomo’s glad the lights are low because he’s pretty sure he’s blushing. "I can remember," he mumbles, "how you used to wonder if we’d ever get passed it." He means the whole actor versus musician thing. Jordan Catalano and the Frozen Embryos. But he doesn't have to explain. They're on the same page.

"And you used to tell me there were worse challenges a band could face," Jared murmurs back.

Like now, maybe.

Here’s the thing, Tomo’s thinking. If they let the lawsuit move forward and they lose, Jared and Shannon, who signed that original contract with Immortal Records, will be bankrupt. And it’ll all be over. They’ll be the ones who owe EMI thirty million dollars, and Tomo can go look for a new band.

Actually, he could do that right now and avoid the collateral damage, but hell will freeze over first. It’s his life, and he has every right to fucking destroy it in any way he pleases. Say, by pursuing any lost cause, or deep sense of personal loyalty, or misguided principle he chooses.

"What name did she want to call you?" Jared asks quietly.

"Huh?" For a second, it's like Tomo forgets how the conversation started.

"Your friend. Did she assign you a name?"

"Oh, I dunno," Tomo shrugs. "I didn’t really know any of those other characters, or their names."

Jared leans back in his chair and smiles enigmatically. Right this moment, the light in his eyes is just about as bright and cryptic as Tomo has ever seen it.

"You know," he says, "If it had been up to me, I think I might have called you Shane."

\--end--


End file.
